TELUS Website Offends Customers, Should They Issue A Public Apology Or Sweep It Under The Rug?

No one is perfect, and even a multi-million dollar corporation such as TELUS is going to make a mistake every so often, but perhaps the different is how it is handled. As we covered on Profectio and seen on several sites TELUS made a slight mistake on their website yesterday, we’ll just call it being “playful”. TELUS used the words “broke” and “dead beat” to refer

[Consumer:] Why do I need a credit check?
[Telus:] You may be broke, therefore highly unlikely to pay your bill.
We just don’t want to lose money, you dead beat. You know how it is…

The verbiage has since been taken down from but there is a bigger question we should ask ourselves as public relations professionals.

Should TELUS have issued a public apology on their website or sweep it under the rug and ignore the mistake. What are your thoughts?